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6/2/09

So the big announcement is in the rear view mirror. Pretty sure no one was thinking that right? I had some news of my own to share yesterday and forgot to mention it. I recently was asked to write for Hoops Doctors once in awhile. I accepted if no other reason than to have the cool tag of Dr. Dino. I did a write up about the Big Bosh News for them. I also wrote two other things on the hiring of Eddie Jordan with the Sixers and give my thoughts on a return of basketball to Vancouver. So I want to thank the guys at Hoop Doctors for the invite and hopefully I add something to the mix. So thanks to David and Adam and everyone else over at Hoops Doctors. I am always working hard and this is another place for me to do my thing. I write on occasion for T.O Sports, The Industry Magazine I write for that magazine that is Bi-monthly. The new issue of that magazine should be out soon. In addition to this I have done a weekly radio appearance on Off The Bench on CJLO. I even make the occasional appearance on Jacked In with Jessica on 1150 AM CKFR. This on top of doing the Dino Nation Blog and Live Blogging for the score. If you want to book the Dino Nation Blogger for birthday parties, weddings and other social events...well maybe not. But I do work hard at this and try my best to make it my living. So if you write a blog or a radio show somewhere hit me up if you would like and I would be happy to help out.

But enough about me. The first news of the off-season that I actually think I am happy about. Alvin Williams could be added to Raptors coaching staff. The former Raptor who was tough as nails is said to be in talks with the Raptors about becoming an assistant coach with the team. If there is anyone that can help this team get tougher and better on defense maybe it is Boogie Williams. Alvin is one guy that I have actually had a chance to meet. He is a low key guy but a very intense guy as well. It was a shame how is time with the Raptors came to an end. He in some senses may have been is worst enemy in being to tough for his own good. He would play through the injuries and sometimes would have been better served to sit down and get right. Bryan Colangelo talked about this team being to nice. He did not go as far as to say they were soft but that is where he was heading. Alvin Williams if he can translate his toughness as a player to coaching and pass it on to the current players in can only help.

That is my warm and fuzzy moment for today, which has been few and far between of late. Last year it was T.J Ford that was rumoured to be heading out of town and eventually that came to pass. Now a new summer and Chris Bosh is the guy that people think could be shown the door. There is differences in the two. As much as I am fan of T.J he is not on the same level of Bosh as a player. He did not come close to level of success or popularity of Bosh. However the situation is the same in the sense a dark cloud hangs over the future of Bosh heading into this summer just as it did for T.J. When is the day going to come when we as a fan base and to a lesser extent as a media stop pushing players out the door. I am not sure if you have ever checked out Bosh's fan page on Facebook. But you will see a list of folks who are fans of other teams daily hoping and praying that he will come to their team. Yet here in Toronto people are in fear that Bosh will leave and take off and have decided that you must deal Bosh and try to get something for him.

Sure if you want to be selfish you would have liked to have had Bosh's announcement to be that he wants to remain in Toronto as a Raptor. But that is not realistic. If you were in Bosh's spot would you really do that? I mean it makes no sense at all to do that. He wants to make money as I think we all would in his shoes or are own for that matter. If he declines an extension that is not him saying he wants out of Toronto. He just wants the best deal possible. The speculation that is south of the border only makes people in Toronto be more concerned. Bosh has never given any indication personally he is leaving. In fact in making a deal with Canadian company does that not speak to him maybe not in any rush to get out of town? Just a thought. However the way people try to justify Bosh being moved devalues what Bosh is. The guy gets 20 and 10 you are not finding that is this draft. I refuse to take away from what this guy has accomplished. I am not doing that.

Same thing happens when I have suggested the idea of Steve Nash and bringing him to the Raptors. He is to old and he is finished. I have heard it all. The ideas that I have come up with are about trying to save this thing and not go into total rebuild mode. Seems that people have very little patience these days. Miss a year of the playoffs, blow it up and start over. That is not going to win a championship if at the first sign of trouble you want to TNT the team and start over. It would be nice to read every once in awhile someone that has a plan to give Bosh a reason to stay instead of adding to the reasons that he should go or we should get rid of him.

People hate Vince Carter. They hate him for a variety of reasons. However at the end of the day when Vince Carter left town he was right about some things. He was unhappy with the constant change and lack of consistency in the organization. He felt that Rob Babcock was not the right man for the job. He had his own choice for G.M that the Raptors did not consider. Can I tell you that Julius Erving would have made a better G.M than Rob Babcock. Well no I really can't. But based on the evidence of what Babcock did in his time here it is hard to think he would do worse. I can tell you one thing. Dr. J was not letting Andre Iguodala was not getting left on the draft board.

Negative thinking leads to negative results. That sounded pretty Zen Masterish. But I just think if the Raptors indeed move Bosh in a rush it could lead to only bad things. I just am not in the mood to rebuild this thing just yet. Honestly the money from a Bosh contract off the books in that 2010 free agent period might be of more value. What will you get in a trade for a guy even if he is an all-star when he only has one year left on his deal. The answer is not as much as you expect to get. If things don't work out there is lots of time to rebuild. I am willing to hold out hope for one more year and give Colangelo one more chance to build a team around him.

5 comments:

Here's why I think we hired Babcock, VC wanted DrJ, but they didn't want to listen to any more of VC's ideas, It was VC's idea of hiring Lenny Wilkens as the coach it was also who wanted a past-his-prime Hakeem Olajuwon (ever hear the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf").

About Bosh now, I really think we could build a team around him, but I am not against trading him if we can get the right deal. If we were trying to trade him, we need to look to trade him out west (most franchise players who get traded are traded to the other conference), we can trade within the conference, but not within the division or to a up and rising team. Portland or Golden State (sans Maggette and Crawford) I think are the best locations in the west to trade him to.

I just heard Bosh is trying to get a singing career going. This disturbs me very much in terms of BC trying to make our team a tad tougher, but he does have the right to do whatever he wants to in the summer if it does not land him in prison. IMHO, I agree our team is not even stable at all, but with this news this is why our team is soft and when someone who is the best player on our team decides to do something like this and has not accomplished as much as expected this is not going to draw in free agents.

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